TGIF

Happy weekend, friends! We are headed over to Yakima to celebrate Jessie and Pete's nuptials. I can't wait to see the beautiful bride and boogie the night away! Rather than have a whirlwind trip, we decided to head over tonight and stay until Sunday morning. Perhaps spend Saturday exploring a few wineries and just relaxing after a long, long week.

Hope you all have a festive, yet relaxing weekend ahead of you too!

P.S. I snapped this photo of a random couple in Hawaii and it took everything in me not to chase them down and ask for their email, so I could send it to them. I just wasn't quite sure how they'd respond to some girl running after them on their romantic beach walk, yelling, "wait, I took a photo of you! Let me show you!" It could have gotten weird, don't you think?

10 Reasons I Love the Puyallup Fair

My top ten reasons for why I love the Puyallup Fair:

1. The rides. We only go on one per year (this year we went on the super-high swings!), but not only are they fun, they make me feel like a kid again.
2. Corn on the cob. Let's just say they dip the entire cob in butter. Indulgent? Yes. But you can't be good all of the time, right?
3. The cute little farm animals!
4. Fisher scones, a-MAZ-ing. The raspberry jam is where it's at.
5. The grange displays.
6. Ginormous pumpkins.
7. Hundreds of one of my favorite flowers, dahlias! It's hard to pick a favorite color.
8. This is a new one: the Earthquake Cheeseburger. It's literally as big as my head and quite delicious.
9. My annual supply of honey from the Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm. For the past 3 (or 4?) years, I've picked up a jar to sweeten my morning tea at work. My favorite is the lavender honey. Best way to start my morning.
10. The tradition :) Year after year, we make it happen and it's the perfect way to welcome fall. Can't wait until next year !

P.S. Check out other Puyallup trips!

Itty bitty goats

I never thought of myself of a goat person, but the little pygmy goats at the Puyallup Fair stole my heart. They were so little and cute and I just wanted to pick them up and give them a good squeeze. Joe immediately thanked his lucky stars that we don't have that big of a backyard*.

Full report on the Fair Festivities to come, but I just wanted to hold you over with an itty bitty goat. Let's name him - Bjorn? Kevin? Colonel? What do you think?

*For the record, I'd only actually get a goat if I lived on a straight-up farm. Then I would be a goat cheese maker. And make this for dinner every night. Good plan, huh?

Bavarian Bliss

By now, you should be well aware of my love for Leavenworth. Any town that combines great weather for every season, good beer, fun festivals, taffy shops, wine tasting, German pretzels and an overall kitschy tourism feel - is a fabulous town in my book. To kick off the fall season and say goodbye to summer, the girls adventured east for a day trip to our favorite Bavarian getaway - consisting of an authentic German lunch, wine tasting, store hopping, ice cream eating, riverside walking and more.

I think another winter trip to Leavenworth is in order. Who's with me?

Five Years

Yesterday was my five year anniversary at work. Say what?! FIVE YEARS! I can't believe how quickly time flies. It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about my two year anniversary. (Which also gets me thinking, wow, I've been blogging for a long time!) It's truly amazing how much has changed in the past five years - South Lake Union (where our office is located) has grown exponentially, I've run in several half marathons and one full marathon, I've lived four different places - the Big House in Green Lake (for only a couple weeks of work), an apartment with Holden in Green Lake, my sweet little Ballard apartment and now our home. I've gone on magical trips to Hawaii, Lake Chelan, Leavenworth, Iceland, Sweden, the California coast and more. I also met and fell in love with my sweets (almost 3 years ago!).

At any rate, to mark the occasion, my boss took me out to lunch at Serious Pie and our client joined the fun. It was a fun way to celebrate the milestone! 

But seriously, someone please tell me, how does time go by so quickly?!

pic/via

A little hike, a little beach and a lotta fun.

Friday night, we were debating whether we'd hike Little Si, Mount Si or Mailbox Peak (three rather strenuous hikes) - we picked up hiking snacks and figured we'd decide in the morning. Morning came and our sleepy butts couldn't get moving quick enough. By the time we got up, got ready and had some breakfast, it felt like too late of a start to go big. So we opted for one of our go-to's: Discovery Park. (If you recall, I discovered it almost three years ago!) A little hike, a little beach and a lotta fun.

Goodwill Gold

The same day I picked up my lamp, we also came across this little number at Goodwill. I wasn't completely sold on it at first because there were some dirt smudges and the frame was just plain ugly, but since I grew up on the water, it felt like an ode to home. And for only $13, I decided to take a risk and see if I could spiffy it up to fill the void on an empty wall in my living room. At least until I could buy some art that I really, really loved.

So we brought it home, even though Joe remained skeptical. First, I used a damp rag to rub off the dirt marks, which worked wonders - it came off and even make the paint wet again, so it looked like an original brushstroke. Then, I used some brown paint we had laying around to paint the frame. What a transformation!

Now it's hung proudly on the wall and completely complements the room - with the greens, blues and browns - it's the perfect fit. I'm not sure I'll even need to look for a replacement any time soon. What do you think?

P.S. It's signed by a Hendrickson, dated 1965 - it's like a little piece of history! Fun, huh?

TGIF

I need one of these right now. Or maybe 12? Yeah, definitely 12 of them.

Happy Friday, amigos!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Our record is almost perfect: A Mariner's Father/Daughter date just about every year since I was about 8 years old. Peanuts, hot dogs and beers (though it used to be sodas) - enjoying nine innings of each other's company. The last few years, it's been his birthday gift because I love me some "experience gifts".

Unfortunately, the M's couldn't pull off a win. I guess we'll have to wait until next year, Dad! Hope you had a wonderful day!

DIY: Lamp

Since our living room doesn't have overhead lighting, we have to rely strictly on lamps. Luckily, we have a floor lamp from my apartment, but there was one little corner that needed a little lighting oomph. So I've been keeping my eyes open for the perfect lamp. Turns out, the perfect lamp is ridiculously expensive. I mean, come on, it's a lamp, why you gotta charge an arm and a leg? So until I could find this quintessential "perfect" lamp, I thought I'd bring a little light in our lives on the cheap.

Enter: Goodwill.

I figured if we could find a nice, functional lamp, and add a little paint and a new shade - it would bring it to life.

This was the winner. A $7 ceramic lamp with bent-up shade. (Fifi really liked it.) Please disregard the base, I had already taped it up to prepare for Operation Spray Paint. We picked a really pretty blue-green for a pop of color, but still tie in with our green walls and navy couch.

But Operation Spray Paint wasn't perfect. Some flecks of something from outside got into the paint and there were a few drips. So I had to let it dry and do some sanding.

But after a little TLC, it all turned out fine and dandy. Look at this beauty! Spray paint for $5 and a shade for $16 - with the lamp, that makes $28. This similar lamp goes for more than 20x that!

And little did we know, a lamp shade provides endless hours of entertainment for the kitties. Double score.

Fifi and Goose just saying hello.

She sometimes sticks her tongue out when she sleeps.

She is the most playful and mischievous of the two.

Her fur is sooooo soft.

He loves the camera. 

But he loves food more and is nearly twice the size as his sister.

His purr is very, very loud.

These cats are adorbs. I love them.

The Gig

On one glorious day over Labor Day weekend, we made our way down to Gig Harbor to spend a day at the Helling's home to enjoy our final summer days. What did we do? Well, let me tell you.

1. We roasted an entire, full grown pig. (It wasn't Wilbur, I promise!) Thanks to Chef Leif for doing the honors!
2. Drank a few beers, some in the namesake of the Double Take!
3. Some sailed, some windsurfed and a few wakeboarded.
4. Many of us floated on our trusty friend, the Inflation Station.
5. Then we all cozied up around a bonfire until our eyelids became heavy. 

Summer, you will be missed. Fall, I expect GREAT things. 

Labor Day

We took Labor Day seriously by laboring away in our bathroom. What started as "hey, let's take down the wallpaper and paint the bathroom" turned into a much bigger project than expected. First, this wallpaper was clearly designed by SATAN and consequently took a dozen hours to fully remove (and we haven't even finished the ceiling - yes, they had wallpapered the ceiling, who does that?!). It also did a fair share of damage to the walls, so we'll have to do some patching.

One thing led to another and we were dreaming up big changes, but we're holding back and just replacing the mirror/vanity for now. But even that will take more labor than expected - changing wiring to move the lights on each side of the mirror, patching a part of the wall because the Ikea model we found doesn't quite fit into the hole in the wall, etc.

But don't worry, we also got some quality water, sun and BBQ time in this weekend - more to come on that! In the meantime, if you know of anyone who does pro-bono bathroom work, send them my way :)